


The Ford Job

by hunters_retreat



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassin Eliot, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-14
Updated: 2010-05-14
Packaged: 2018-01-10 04:41:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1155197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nate Ford was an ex-insurance investigator with a new team and a new way of life. In fact, Robin Hood had never looked so good. That was, until Nate's old boss decided it was time to get rid of the man that was scamming them time and time again. When they called in an assassin to take care of the job, they didn't just want his death. They wanted him betrayed first, wanted one of his own team to pull the trigger so he'd know the sting of it. Of course, they paid for the best. Eliot Spencer wasn't cheap but he was thorough. But what happens when the two men find something they both thought was beyond them? What happens when the two unlikeliest men in the business find a connection?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ford Job

 

[ ](http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/hunters_retreat/media/Art%20Made%20for%20hunters_retreat/The%20Ford%20Job%20by%20hunters_retreat/fordjob.jpg.html)

Eliot Spencer was a man of his word.  A man of honor.  When he told you he could do something, he did it.  That was the end of the story.  He could not be bought and he could not be bribed once he agreed to a job.  He was as respectable as anyone could be in his line of work and the world that knew of him, by any alias, knew that. 

 

He didn’t take every job that came his way.  Sometimes he didn’t like the job.  Other times he didn’t like the money.  This time, he disliked the job, but the money was good enough to shut him up and take it anyway.  He hated working for big businesses, but Eliot didn’t judge his employers or the job he had to do.  He did it without regret and without emotional attachment.

 

It made Eliot the best in the business, the least likely to fail.  It made his fall all the harder when it happened.

 

 

 

 

Eliot watched the con from a distance, always safe from the all too watchful eyes of what he considered to be the best con team in the game.  Excitement filled him, the idea that he would be going up against them, that he would be submerging himself right under the nose of one Sophie Devereaux.  Fooling her, getting under her skin and into her team without her picking up on it would be difficult.  The grifter was well known in the community for a reason but she wasn’t the only obstacle.

 

Alec Hardison shouldn’t be much of an issue.  Hardison was damn good at his job, but Eliot had paid good money so that his aliases could withstand any kind of background check.  He’d made sure to keep the name Eliot Spencer on the up and up for just this sort of business so no matter what Hardison did he would only find what Eliot wanted him to. 

 

Neither Parker nor Dean Clayton would bother with any of that.  They’d trust Hardison to check on the background and leave it at that.  Word on the street was that Parker was one bottle short of a six pack so even if she got suspicious he doubted anyone would take it too seriously.

 

Dean Clayton would be out of his way soon enough anyway, Eliot made sure of that.  He needed the other hitter off the team and luckily he was on good enough terms with the man that Eliot knew he’d name him as a possible replacement. 

 

The real problem, the real challenge would be the man himself.  Nathan Ford.  Nate to his friends, a group that consisted solely of his team.  The man never talked to anyone that wasn’t a mark, a con, or a client. 

 

Eliot would know.  He’d been watching the mastermind for the past two months; one month before he agreed to the job and another after he’d taken it as he tried to work out the right tact to make his way into Nathan’s team.

 

If he was honest with himself, he was rather fascinated with Nathan Ford.  The man took a handful of crooks and turned them into a modern day fairytale, Robin Hood and his merry fucking men, off to rob the rich and give to the poor and down trodden.  It was almost noble, except that no matter how you looked at it, they were all still just crooks. 

 

A former insurance investigator who had always used rather questionable means to get what he needed, turned crook when the stakes got too high, the man made Eliot’s fingers twitch in the way only a really good mystery could.  He wasn’t Sherlock Holmes or anything, but Eliot did love to get to the bottom of things.  Good thing too, because it looked like he was about ready to join the crew, become the Watson to Ford’s mastermind.

 

He turned his binoculars to the team as Sophie walked across the conference room towards the client, Nathan behind her, with Parker in another office two doors down, stealing the latest layout for the magazine and replacing it with something of Hardison’s design. 

 

Dean stood on the other side of the room, keeping an eye on Nathan and Sophie when Eliot saw his body stiffen.   Four men, not as big as Dean himself because the man was built like a fucking hummer, walked through the door all carrying the relentless grace of a man that was more than capable of taking care of business. 

 

Dean stepped forward immediately, bringing himself to the attention of the other men.  Nathan placed himself between Sophie and the other men, backing away but still trying to pull the con off.  It might have worked if they had just come across them by accident, if Eliot hadn’t tipped them off to the con already.  The damage was done, though Nathan’s team had completed their job.  Eliot had made sure to give them that.  A team walking out of a failed mission was harder on itself, looked into it too much, and he didn’t need the scrutiny in the beginning. 

 

He watched Parker scaling down the side of the building and pulled out his phone, making the quick call he needed to.  It didn’t take long before Hardison let the others Parker was clear, he could see it as Nathan began backing Sophie out the door and Dean was cutting off anyone that looked like they might want to follow the mastermind and the grifter.  Sophie tried to stop, but Nathan was pulling her away and Dean was yelling at Nathan to get her out. 

 

Nathan was fighting to get Sophie out of there, but he could see the way the man kept turning back to check on Dean himself, trying to find a way to think his way out of this fight, out of leaving the hitter to take what was his by profession and choice.

 

There was nothing, and Eliot watched as Nathan and Sophie joined the others in the van, waiting, listening on the other end as their hitter started moving towards the others.  It didn’t last long.  When you were of that caliber it never did.  The four men didn’t have quite his physique, but Dean’s weakness was his slower speed and his reliance on forms.  A classically trained fighter, Dean used his muscle and the methods he had been taught and had never learned the faster, more flexible styles.  Eliot made sure the men that were fighting him knew it too. 

 

Two men went down before one of the guys got a solid blow to Dean’s face.  It stunned him for a moment and that was all the two men needed.  They were raining blows heavily over him and Eliot wondered for a moment if they were really going to kill him before the sirens began.  The two men grabbed their fallen comrades and made a run for it.  Eliot watched Dean struggle to his feet then hobble towards the door.  Nathan was there and Eliot cursed himself for not keeping a closer eye on where the others were.  He must have taken Sophie to the van and headed back for the hitter.  It was too late for Nate to do anything though. Eliot could see Dean shaking his head in denial, as if he was telling him he shouldn’t be there even as Nate pulled an arm over his shoulder and got him to the van.  A second later they were speeding off before the cops pulled into the building parking lot.

 

Eliot retreated to his own car, putting some distance between himself and the scene of the fight.  He had a job two states over and it was time to get it over with.  If all went well, he’d finish that up just in time to get a phone call from Dean, referring him to his team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bar was Eliot’s favorite place to conduct business.  He liked the way he could blend into the background and not attract too much attention, even with his hair let down.  The bar was crowded tonight, enough people to keep anyone from noticing the strange group they would make and yet not too busy to make it hard to get away if need be.  Eliot liked the place.

 

 He watched them enter the room, watched the way they kept an eye on one another and how they eyed the exits.  Nathan Ford observed the room and Eliot could see him ticking over the evidence in his head, his mind picking up little bits of minutiae to tell him who he was looking for.  Without a description, Nathan’s eyes settled on Eliot and he made his way across the room as the rest of his team spread out at another booth where they could see him.       

 

Nathan took a seat in the booth across from Eliot.  “Spencer,” he said, his manner was casual but there was something calculating in the ease of his movements.  He was the sort of man who judged everything, who watched and waited.

 

Eliot was alright with that.  It meant he had to be careful about what he was doing, but it also meant that if he could work things out with the team, and he didn’t doubt that he could, he would be working with a man that thought of everything, whose brain worked around corners and into the dark rooms most people didn’t acknowledge were hiding in plain sight.

 

“Mr. Ford.”

 

“Can I get you gentleman something?” the waitress smiled as she asked, flashing white teeth and an invitation Eliot might appreciate at a later time. 

 

“Gin, on the rocks.”  Ford said without thought, his eyes taking in the waitress but dismissing her almost immediately as nothing more.   It was something he could exploit later.  As hard as Nathan watched everyone else, the bar staff seemed to be excluded, as if Nathan didn’t want to look too closely into the people bringing him his drinks.

 

“A bottle of Guinness.”  Eliot said to the waitress, giving her his most charming smile.  It was easier to hide how much he’d drunk through the dark bottle and label.  He wasn’t sure he needed to worry about that just yet, but it was always good to be prepared. 

 

He watched her go, and then turned to look back at Nathan.  “So, my friend Dean says you need a hitter.”

 

Eliot Spencer didn’t pull punches, physical or verbal.  He was a man who did what he meant to and said what he meant to.  Nathan seemed to realize that as he smiled at Eliot.

 

“He said you were direct.”

 

“What else did he say about me?”

 

“That if there was anyone better than him, it would be you.”

 

Eliot laughed slightly as the waitress came back with their drinks.  He raised his eyebrows and turned his smile on Nathan.  “He thinks highly of himself these days,” he said before taking a drink. 

 

“His work speaks for itself.”

 

Eliot shrugged.  “I’ll give you that.  Talked to him this morning actually.  He said you needed a hand for something big.  He said I could trust you and believe me, that’s not something I expected to hear from him.”

 

Nathan nodded.  “I know what sort of people you’re used to dealing with Mr. Spencer.”

 

“Eliot, please.”

 

Nathan took a drink of his gin and tipped the glass slightly.  “Eliot.  I had my people check you out and even if you don’t remember, we’ve met before.”

 

Eliot smiled because he remembered exactly what Nathan was talking about.  “Beijing.  1997. You nearly caught my team.”

 

“You nearly got me fired.”  Nathan said with a grin.  “Your boss wasn’t known for thinking ahead of the game.”

 

Eliot shook his head.  “He wasn’t, and he didn’t.  I don’t like going into anyplace I don’t have at least three exits from.  I made damn sure I had ‘em, even if he hadn’t.”

 

“Good to know.  I don’t leave my people behind though; I don’t walk away and leave them to fend for themselves.  I have a team and we protect one another.” 

 

Eliot just smiled because he’d watched them leave Dean behind.  No matter that he went back or what sort of plan Nate had in place to get him if he’d been gone, Nate had left him to take that beating. 

 

“And here you are looking for another to join your band of Merry Men, ready to rob from the rich to give to the poor if Dean wasn’t lying.  You and your friends might be working pro-bono, but I expect to be well paid for any work I do.”

 

“I wouldn’t expect less.”  Nathan said without thought. 

 

“Nathan, perhaps you’d like to make some introductions?”

 

Eliot stood immediately, letting his smile exude good ole boy charm as he looked up at Miss Sophie Devereaux.  She was beautiful, elegant in the way of a polished diamond, just as hard, and from a world just as dangerous. 

 

Nathan smiled at Sophie, as if there hadn’t been some sort of signal that it was time for her to come join them.  “Of course.  Eliot Spencer, I’d like to introduce you to Sophie Devereaux.”

 

“Ms. Devereaux.  It’s a pleasure ma’am,” he said as she took a seat next to Nathan.  He sat then, smiling as he took another sip of his beer. 

 

“The pleasure is mine.  I’ve heard good things about you from a friend you worked with.” 

 

Nathan seemed surprised by the admission and Eliot wondered about the other secrets Devereaux was keeping from him.  “And who would that be?”

 

“Tara Cole.”

 

Eliot laughed because of all names for her to pull out of the air she had to give that one.  “Tara Cole?”  He could picture the blond without problem, long hair and cocky smirk on her face, always working an outfit that was just the wrong side of tramp to be classy.  She was good.  Not as good as the classic style that radiated from Sophie Devereaux, but she was still good.  They’d had some fun together in Berlin.  “She was alright.”

 

Sophie smiled like she knew more than he was letting on but she didn’t say anything.  He wasn’t sure if she did know, but it was always best to assume that someone of Sophie’s skill was playing a con as soon as you stepped into the conversation.

 

“She spoke highly of you.”

 

He nodded as he took a sip of his beer.  “It was a good job and we all got paid well.”

 

“Yes, she said she’d be more than willing to work with you again, if there was ever a need.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.”  He said, letting his eyes drift down to his beer, like there was something he wanted to hide.  Let Sophie think what she wanted about his connection to Tara Cole.  He was just glad he hadn’t had to kill her in the end. 

 

“So, it sounds like we have a deal then.”  Nathan said, interrupting the exchange between them.            

 

Eliot saw the way Nathan eyed Sophie and he wondered about the history there, wondered if she was going to be trouble for what he needed to do.  He smiled at Nathan though, smiled and nodded his head because until he knew the story he wasn’t about to play up an interest in Sophie.  “It sounds like.  What do you have in mind?”

 

Nathan smiled then and Eliot couldn’t help but wonder what sort of mischief went on inside his mind.  “We need to steal a wedding.”

 

Eliot’s smile faltered and he looked from Nathan to Sophie waiting for the joke.  “A wedding?”

 

Nathan nodded as he took a long drink of gin.  “Hope you look good in a tux.”

 

 

 

 

 

Eliot sat listening to them talk around the conference table, trying to find a way into the house.  It wasn’t just that the place was a practical fortress.  It was that it was a mobster’s fortress.  Nathan wasn’t happy about the job and Eliot knew that Sophie was the reason for it.  She’d brought in the client, not something usual for the team.  The two seemed to be dancing around each other in a way that Eliot was sure meant something.  He was just trying to figure out if it was something he could use to get between them.

 

They’d already caged the place, checking for security and trying to find a way in.  So far, all they knew was that the daughter’s wedding was horribly tacky and there was no way of breaking into the house in the usual manner.  They were going to have to think outside their comfort zone and Eliot was happily watching their mastermind spin his tires to find a way to get in.

 

“Let’s hear it then.”  Sophie said to Hardison as he complained about the never ending bickering of Moscone’s family.  He pulled up the sound file and they were left listening to Mr. and Mrs. Moscone going back and forth about the wedding until Nathan finally jerked them out of the verbal sparring. 

 

“Alright then.  Tomorrow morning we go in as wedding planners.”

 

“You mean, we show up two days before the wedding and think she’ll take our help?”  Sophie asked.

 

“Exactly.  We get in, get the money from Mascone, then Theresa can buy back the restaurant and live the happily ever after she’s supposed to, right?” 

 

Sophie stiffened up at that.  “What about her husband Nate?  She’s been waiting for her husband for five years.  Mascone promised to take care of his family if he took the fall for a murder he didn’t commit.”

 

Nate shook his head.  “That’s what happens when you take money from the Mob.  Look, we promised to help your friend get her restaurant back because Mascone broke their agreement.  That is our priority.”

 

“Okay, we’ll a wedding planner works for Sophie, but what about everyone else?”  Hardison asked.

 

Sophie looked at them with an angry gaze, but she let herself be distracted as she began sizing them up.  “Hardison can be the DJ and Nate the Priest.”

 

“A Priest?”  Eliot asked as he looked at Nathan.

 

“It’s a long story.”  Sophie answered for the man. 

 

“I can be a seamstress.”  Parker offered. 

 

They all looked at her like she was off her rocker and Eliot was glad to see he wasn’t alone in that assessment. 

 

“What?  They’ll need one, right?”

 

“Um, sure.”  Sophie said, nodding as she watched Parker smile.  She looked at Eliot then.  “That just leaves-“

 

“Chef.”  Eliot answered before Sophie could try to fit him in somewhere else. 

 

“Really?”  Nathan asked.

 

“I’m a man of many talents.”  He said with a grin.  Nathan held his eye a moment longer than needed and Eliot smiled a little wider.  Nathan didn’t trust him yet and it would take a while to get past his gruff manners, but Eliot had faith.  After all, he had a hefty pay check waiting for him as motivation and an unhealthy amount of southern charm.  It was only a matter of time before Nathan Ford’s soft side showed.

 

 

 

The job itself was a clusterfuck.  Nothing like trying to screw the mob out of money to get the blood flowing, or the knife of the Butcher of Kiev.  Eliot had enough memories of their first fight, fire raging around them as the man tried to filet him with the butcher knife he was named for.  Thankfully there would never be a third fight.  He wasn’t sure if Nathan was impressed or just stunned that Eliot had killed a man, but he had to admit that death by hors d’oeuvres was probably his most unusual kill so far.     

 

Still, he’d done right by the team and Nathan was beginning to show a little more trust.  He’d had a chance to talk to the mastermind and let him see that there was more to Eliot than just hurting people.  It wasn’t a lot, but it was something.

 

After it was done they’d gone back to the office and Sophie convinced them to surprise her friend with the news at the restaurant.  They all agreed and headed over, taking the restaurant over much easier than they had the wedding.  The others started to set the place up, setting out lights and Eliot walked into the kitchen, cracking his fingers before he pulled his hair back away from his face.

 

“What are you doing?”  Sophie asked as she and Nathan came walking in.

 

“Dinner.  You’re going to invite her back to celebrate and I think we can do a little better than wine.”

 

Sophie smiled widely at him, coming over to kiss his cheek softly.  “Thank you Eliot.”

 

“Just make sure everything looks good.  I don’t have time for anything fancy, but I’m sure I can cook something up before she gets here.”

 

 

 

The evening was a greater success than the rest of the job.  By the time Theresa got there Eliot had managed to put together pasta and a decent meat sauce with thick meat balls, fresh garlic rolls, and a classic anti-pasta salad.  Nathan had picked out a good wine for it and they’d all laughed and joked, sharing the meal as they entertained each other with family-safe antics.

 

Hardison and Parker were the first to head out and then Eliot convinced Sophie to take Theresa home before she got it in her head to try to clean up after their little party.  Eliot said his good-byes to them all as Nate headed out, walking them to their car.

 

It’d been a pretty good time.  They might all be thieves and crooks, but other than their profession, they all seemed on the up and up.  Parker was still playing with less than a full deck of cards, but she was mostly off in a cute sort of way.  Hardison was funny and well read with more talent than he knew what to do with.  Eliot could see how a foster kid with that sort of intelligence and talent could have gotten lost in the education system and decided to educate himself, in ways that weren’t quite so law abiding.  Sophie was beginning to trust him more, though she seemed to be wary of giving him too much time alone with Nathan.  Of course, she had the same problem with the others so he didn’t think it wasn’t anything personal.

 

Eliot began carrying the dishes back to the kitchen, starting the water to let them soak as he gathered the rest and began cleaning off the tables. 

 

“Wow, you cook and clean.  Dean said you were good, but he didn’t give the impression that you were particularly house broken.”

 

Eliot smiled softly as he looked up at Nathan leaning against the doorframe.  “Yeah, well Dean and I worked together a couple times and it wasn’t really the sort of job you get comfortable in, if you know what I mean.”

 

Nathan nodded and Eliot moved back into the kitchen to start washing dishes.  Nathan followed him and Eliot watched the other man from the corner of his eye, drinking his wine and looking something like a lost child. 

 

“You did good out there.”  Nathan finally said.  “Considering how everything went, you were good.  The others were comfortable too, they knew you’d get them out.  Yeah.  It was good.”

 

Eliot nodded.  “You have a good team Nathan.  You need any more help before Dean gets up and around you just give me a call.”

 

“Dean’s not coming back.”

 

Eliot looked up in genuine surprise.  “What?”

 

“I talked to Dean yesterday.  He said he’s out.  He didn’t need the money anymore; he was just after the game.  He decided that it was time to go legit.”

 

“Damn.”

 

Eliot had no idea the other man had been that close to quitting the job.  People like them didn’t normally take a seat from the game.  It was something in the blood, something in their make up that made them able to take a hit and keep on coming.  Eliot knew what his own problem was and he knew that it would take something pretty extreme to make him back out.  He needed it too much.  He’d thought the same about Dean.

 

“Yeah.  So, I guess that makes this a job offer.”

 

Eliot couldn’t help the smile that came to his lips and he didn’t want to.  It was more than he would have hoped for at this stage. 

 

“I … yeah man.  Yeah, I think I’d like to stick around for a while and see what y’all are about.  Thank you Nathan.”

“Don’t thank me.”  The other man said, but there was a smile on his face.  “The others all agreed that you were everything Dean said you were so you deserve the spot.”  He turned to walk out, then stopped and looked over his shoulder.  “Hardison will work out a new identity for you on our jobs and he’ll call you in when we’re ready for the next client.  And Eliot?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Call me Nate.”

 

Eliot’s smile grew and he nodded.  “Good night Nate.”

 

 

 

They settled into a more familiar pattern then.  Nate called the jobs and the others fell in line.  It wasn’t at all the way Eliot expected it to happen.  He’d expected a lot of bickering and in-fighting because of their portfolios but there was none of that.  Nate brought out the best in his team, demanded it from them with the way his mind worked a con, and they brought out the best in him.  It made Eliot sit back and wonder because what his employer had told him about Nate didn’t seem to be adding up.  This wasn’t the type of man who turned dirty because the stakes got high enough, which was what his employer had implied when he took the job.  Not that the reason behind Nate’s turn to the dark side was all that much of a concern, but Eliot didn’t like being lied to and he could tell something wasn’t fitting.

 

The advantage of being a hitter was that most people thought you weren’t all that smart.  Even as good as Eliot was, people tended to tell him what to do rather than ask an opinion.  He let them think it unless there was a reason otherwise and he thought his current employer just might find out they were mistaken.

 

Nate on the other hand, trusted his team to come up with something to give on each job.  He trusted his people to share their expertise and keep one another safe.  It had something of a family feel to it and it made Eliot squirm a little.  It’d been a long time since he’d had anything that resembled family. 

 

And that was how he ended up waiting for the others on a back road after their latest job, with Hardison pinned to the ground.

 

“Man, that ain’t right,” Hardison complained as Eliot sat up and extended a hand to him. 

 

“I told ya to look for it.  Don’t trust anything but the eyes.  I can play a good fake, but the eyes will give it away.  Come on.”

 

Hardison nodded and Eliot contained his surprise at the hacker’s seriousness.  He’d seen that side of Hardison before when it came to a job, but even then, when he was in his element there was self-assured banter on his part.  He was studying Eliot now like there was nothing else in the world.  Eliot knew part of that was that he trusted Eliot, even now, to keep him safe.  Even off the job it was in his job description, the way Nate’s team thought.  It wasn’t entirely untrue either because Eliot did keep an eye on things, not just for his own sake.

 

When he faked this time Hardison wasn’t fooled by it.  Eliot struck out and Hardison blocked the way Eliot had shown him.  He stepped back as Eliot kept going, another strike that Hardison barely managed to get away from.  Then Eliot kicked out, wrapping his leg around Hardison’s calf in a way that made it impossible for him to stop the fall when Eliot snapped his hands out again.

 

Eliot followed him down, pinning him hard.  The hacker looked pissed, but not at Eliot.  “Damn it!”

 

“You did good that time Hardison.  Just remember, you get in a fight, it doesn’t matter how you avoid the hit so long as you do.  There is no such thing as a graceful fight, it’s just who wins and who gets the shit kicked out of them.”

 

A car pulled up then and Eliot looked over his shoulder, keeping his body between Hardison and the vehicle until the door opened and the team spilled out of it, none of them radiating the type of tension that would make him think there was anyone hiding in the car.

 

“Eliot, is there a reason you’re attacking our hacker?”  Nate asked.

 

Eliot stood up, offering Hardison a hand.  The other man took it and nodded, giving him a smile in return.  “Eliot’s just showing me a few of his moves.”

 

“Because…”

 

“Because you leave him in the damn van or in the office or wherever he needs to be to hack into things and I’m not always there.  Just giving him a little bit of self defense to help him out just in case.”

 

“Oh!  I want to learn!”

 

Eliot sighed because he really wasn’t sure he wanted to teach Parker anything dangerous.  She was dangerous enough with all those bats around her belfry. 

 

“Maybe some other time.”  Nate interjected, and Eliot could see the same thing running through the other man’s head.  They shared a small moment and then Sophie was pulling at Nate’s arm.

 

“Are we ready to get home?  I need at least an hour in a hot bath and candlelight to get rid of the dirt.”

 

It was a good move on her part, calling up the image to tantalize Nate with and draw his attention away from the hitter.  He’d noticed the same things Sophie had though, noticed the way Nate couldn’t seem to decide which one of them to keep an eye on at times, which one to stand closer to.  He might still be building trust with Eliot, but Nate was drawn to him and unless he was reading it completely wrong, it was definitely sexual. 

 

Nate rolled his eyes where Sophie couldn’t see but Eliot just looked down at himself.  Sophie wasn’t the only one that could play that game.  “The dirt?  Ain’t nothing wrong with a little down and dirty every now and then.”

 

There it was again, when Nate looked up at him.  Well hidden, but underneath all the planning and all the humor that he used to build walls between himself and his team, was the hunger that lingered.  He and Sophie were both up for grabs and it was just a matter of time before one of them cracked through.    

   

It didn’t matter to Eliot which one it was.  Really, he could use Nate’s connection with Sophie to further his goals just as well as he could a romantic relationship of his own.  Even as he thought it though, the image of Nate spread out under him, yielding his control to Eliot, pressing into that heat, it was a temptation.  It’d been a while since he’d been able to take a lover for more than a night or two, to have someone that could get to know his body and learn how to make him lose control.  There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Nate would be exceptionally good at it too. 

 

He must have let something of it show in his face because then Nate was staring at him, watching him closely and Eliot just licked his lips before looking over at Hardison.  “We ready to blow this place?”

 

Hardison nodded, he and Parker both completely unaware of the battle that was being fought under their noses.  “Yeah man, all packed up.”

 

Eliot looked back at Nate and smiled.  “Looks like we’re ready to get out of here.  Wouldn’t want Sophie to miss her bubble bath.”

 

Sophie’s gaze was arctic when she watched Eliot and he knew he’d have to cool it around her a bit to keep her seeing what he wanted her to, but at least in this area his cover worked for him.  Eliot Spencer had a way with the ladies and his skill had never been doubted.   Sophie might notice how well he played up that little scene, hell Nate might also, but he doubted either would think him capable of anything beyond finding his way into someone’s bed.

 

He got in the car with Hardison then, watched Nate pull out with the others and followed them back to the city. 

 

 

 

  
[](http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/hunters_retreat/media/Art%20Made%20for%20hunters_retreat/The%20Ford%20Job%20by%20hunters_retreat/eliot.jpg.html)

 

Eliot stared at the table, eyeing the three ball for the next shot.  He could feel Nate's eyes on him as he lined it up, the pool cue sliding easily in his hands.  He loved the slick slide of the warm wood between his fingers, the skill it took to get the balls to go where he wanted them.  It was the physical man's chess, always trying to calculate your move and leave your opponent with nothing but junk on the table.  It was another game Eliot excelled at.  
  
The ball slid into corner pocket and as he started to straighten up, Parker pressed against his back.  “Was that a smart move?” she asked.He looked at her over his shoulder, her blond hair dangling in her eyes and he gripped the cue tighter in his hand to keep from reaching over and gently pushing it away from her face.  “I don’t make dumb moves Parker,” he said, smiling in his best big brother imitation.  It irked him to have to plaster it on, mostly because his real smile was just underneath, waiting to get out.  Parker brought out the big brother in him and while it helped him get close to the team, it bothered him more and more.  
  
   
  
“Oh, my mistake I guess,” she said, smiling and she took a step back.  
  
   
  
It was too quick and too easy and as she started to turn he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.  “Give it.”  
  
   
  
“What?”  
   
   
  
“My wallet Parker.  Give it back.”  
  
   
  
Her smile widened and she plunked the wallet down into his waiting palm.  “You’re getting better,” she said, her eyes far too honest for his liking.  Parker told you what she thought, no hesitation or questions about it.  It was refreshing in their line of work, but he still couldn’t help but cringe at being told five year olds picked up on a pick pocket better than he did.  
  
   
  
“Would you stop trying to rob me?”  
  
   
  
She shook her head as she walked away and Eliot rolled his eyes.  He looked across the room and saw Hardison watching with a grin.   
  
   
  
“Eliot, you gonna shoot?”  
  
   
  
Eliot turned away, shaking his head.  “Somethin’ wrong with that girl,” he said to himself.  They’d all heard it before and while they agreed, they all cared for her in their own way.  She was theirs and they’d take her, crazy or not.   
  
   
  
Nate just smiled as Eliot looked around the table.  He had one easy shot and one that would require a little bit of maneuvering.  However, there was still another bit of maneuvering he needed to do with Nate, so he chose to go with the harder shot.  He walked over to where Nate was pressed against the wall and leaned down over the pool table in front of him, sizing up the shot.   
  
   
  
He heard Nate moving slightly, but he didn’t move away, leaving Eliot close enough to touch if he really wanted.  
  
   
  
He let the cue slide between his chalked fingers a few times, then pulled back and let loose, hitting the cue ball hard at the bottom to put a little English on it.  The ball slid in and Eliot smiled over his shoulder at Nate.  
  
   
  
Nate pushed off the wall and before Eliot knew what he was doing, Nate was leaning over him, chest pressed lightly to his back.   
  
   
  
“That was a pretty nice show,” his voice was almost a whisper in Eliot’s ear.  “but I think you left yourself hard pressed.”  
  
   
  
Nate stepped away and Eliot heard him retreat into the kitchen to fill his glass.  He didn’t bother straightening just yet.  He looked at the table and the comment could easily mean the position he’d left the ball, without a clear shot to take when he’d have been clear if he’d hit the other ball in.  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to will away his painfully hard erection.  Trying even harder to push away the thought of Nate spread out on the table in front of him, begging and moaning his name.  
  
   
  
He heard Nate returning and felt a cold bottle against his forearm.   “Looks like you could use a cold one,” he smiled as he walked to the other end of the table.  
  
   
  
Eliot looked at the bottle as Hardison called Nate’s attention away for a minute.  He leaned back on the wall and shook his head.  “Need a cold something,” he mumbled.  Bringing the beer to his lips, he drank the bottle down.  Well, a cold beer was better than nothing.   
  
 

 

 

 

"Sounds like you have a long way to go?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Eliot didn’t try to temper the anger in his voice.   
  
"Our sources tell us that you're still having trouble getting Ford's trust."  
  
Eliot glowered at the phone, glad the man wasn’t there in person or he might have just punched him on principle.  "You didn't hire me to just walk up and pull the trigger. You hired me to get close to a man who’s guarded against everyone, everything.  He’s wound so tight around his trust issues he’ll never see the light of day through them.  Getting through that don't happen overnight. You want to change the orders, we can be done with this tonight.”  
  
He waited, almost hoping for the go ahead and terrified of it just the same. The problem wasn't just Nathan Ford. He was hard to get close to, but Eliot was beginning to have his own issues. Nate got under his skin, dug in deep and didn't stop until he got what he wanted out of Eliot. Damned if that didn't infuriate him, and make him like the guy all the more.

 

“No.  We still want him betrayed but you can’t expect us to wait much longer.”

 

“You want the job done right then you’ll wait.  I don’t know what your sources are but getting Ford’s trust isn’t exactly easy.  I’m getting there.  And I swear to God, if you have someone watching me and I see them, I’ll make sure they can’t watch anymore.  I won’t have this blown because you don’t trust me to do my damn job.”

 

The man on the other end huffed.  “You think highly of yourself Mr. Spencer.”

 

He really wanted to take that fake accent and cram it down his throat.  He closed his eyes because Eliot Spencer was getting a little too much control on his personality these days, a little to close to the skin and not in the box he was supposed to wait in. 

 

“So do you or you wouldn’t be paying me this much.  Remember that when you endanger my job by sending someone in to spy on me.”

 

He hung the phone up without waiting for a response.  It didn’t sit right at all.  None of it did.  Nate cared too much for his team to be the man they said he was and his employer didn’t trust him to do the job. 

 

You didn’t spend that kind of money and not trust someone to get the job done, unless there was something they didn’t know, something that might throw a cog into the works.  Eliot hated surprises and he wasn’t about to let that stand.

 

He booted up his computer and took a deep breath as he waited for it.  He wasn’t a hacker like Hardison, but he wasn’t the complete computer illiterate that he let them think he was.  Mostly, it was just fun to jerk Hardison’s chain. 

 

He shook his head at that, because when had he let himself get so comfortable that it was alright to tease and joke like that?  Because Hardison, as good as he was with a computer, wasn’t the one that would win him over to Nate’s trust.  His teasing with Hardison was done just because he liked the guy.  It was the same reason he was teaching him a few moves in self defense.  As much as he was just on this team for a short while, he was feeling every bit a part of it as they were. 

 

He really had to figure out what the hell was going on.

 

 

 

In less than an hour he had everything he could find about Nate Ford on the screen in front of him, including jobs he thought might have been the team before he’d come along.  He was shaking his head, because seeing all that, he got it.  He finally got it.

 

He’d teased Nate about Robin Hood and his band of thieves and he hadn’t realized that it’d been true.  Dean had given him that spin, but everyone knew that Eliot Spencer was the sort of hitter that had a heart.  He’d thought Dean was just playing it up for him. 

Nate wasn’t some guy gone bad because the stakes had been too good to pass up.  He was a guy who’d lost everything, all because IYS refused to pay for his son’s medical treatment.  He’d lost his son, his wife, and his job.  He’d become a drunk and a reclose until he’d been brought back into the game by a dishonest man.  And that had created the Nathan Ford he knew, a man who had a goal and a purpose to keep him sane, a man who fought the injustice that no one else could.    

 

Hell, Eliot admired the guy. 

 

Fuck if that didn’t make him hate his employer though.  He understood why he was hired now and he hated the job too.  He knew that Nate had made his former company pay through the nose against the losses he’d incurred for them.  IYS wanted Nate out of the way because he was costing them too much money. Someone high up on the food chain wanted Nate betrayed because he felt betrayed by the man that had at one time been the best of their agents. 

 

Eliot let his head bang against the desk a few times because when he really looked down deep, he wasn’t sure he could betray Nate himself. 

 

 When he finally got up he went to the liquor cabinet and pulled out the tequila, not bothering with a glass.  He took a long pull from the bottle because he had to get his head around this.  He had to find a way to put Eliot Spencer back in his box, because unless he did that, Nate Ford and his fucking team were sure to drag him down instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hardison left the picture of the little girl on the monitors like they needed something else to pull at the heart strings, but Nate’s explanation of the job had already taken care of that.  Eliot wanted to pull down the folded front of his knit cap to cover his eyes but he refused to give in to the hangover that was trying to beat his head open from the inside.

 

“Alright everyone, let’s go steal a ballet school.”

 

The others filed out of the room and as Eliot looked up from the table he could see the concern in Nate’s eyes.  Funny since Nate was a functioning alcoholic and lived in that perpetual state between inebriation and hangovers. 

 

“You alright Eliot?”

 

“Yeah, just a late night.”

 

Nate hesitated and Eliot could see he wanted to ask more.  He could see the way Nate’s hands almost twitched to touch his shoulder and make certain that he was okay but he pulled himself together.  It was becoming more and more common and Eliot didn’t know how to stop what he’d started.  The part of him that really was Eliot Spencer didn’t want to, but the survivalist in him knew that he was going to pull that trigger, that when the order came down and he was close enough, he was going to put a gun to Nate’s head and end him.  For a paycheck.

 

He stood quickly before Nate could rein himself in enough to ask more.  “I’ll go check on the security.  We know he’s got some guys on his payroll.”  Eliot said, pushing the job to the front of his mind.  “Think I know where to start.”

 

Nate paused, but then the concern was clouding over and Nate was looking at him with the disassociated look he’d come to understand as Nate distancing himself.  “Good.  That family deserves some payback.”

 

“Yeah, they do.” 

 

And that was part of the problem too.  Nate never picked a job that wasn’t deserving, where the people they were fighting for hadn’t been duped or conned or flat out stolen from.  They had no recourse in the justice system and yet they were floundering to make do.  Like a young girl who would never walk again because someone decided their daughter would be the star of the show instead of her, because some scumbag criminal needed his daughter’s publicity to cover his own dealings.

 

He ducked out of the conference room and stopped by Hardison’s office.  “You got an address?”  He asked the other man.

 

“Yeah, one second.”  Hardison did something on the computer and then it was printing out with the directions.  He handed it to Eliot, but concern was written in his eyes as surely as it had been with Nate.  “You okay man?  You seem… sorta distant today.”

 

He was a damn fool for getting close enough that they noticed.  A fool for not being able to paste Eliot Spencer on today and get on with things.

 

“Yeah man.  Just remember, when a small little brunette sides up to you and asks if you wanna play a drinking game, remember to keep a hand on your wallet.”

 

“You didn’t…”

 

“No, but she damn near drank me under the table before trying it.  She wasn’t near as good as Parker and I’ve had to stop her trying to snatch my wallet enough times to get good at it.”

 

Hardison laughed, taking the information at face value.  He’d tease him about it later and Nate would back off because he’d think Hardison got to the truth of the matter.  Eliot couldn’t help but smile though because Hardison’s fondness for their little thief was rather infectious and Eliot was finding himself more and more entertained at her games. 

 

“Take some aspirin and try not to get in a fight.”  The hacker cautioned. 

 

Eliot gave him his charming smile.  “I’m just going to do a little recon.  You know me.”  He threw the last line over his shoulder and was laughing as he heard Hardison’s voice following him out the door. 

 

“Yeah I do, which is why I said do not get in a fight!”

 

 

 “Someone want to tell me how Parker knows about all this ballet stuff?”  He asked as they watched the school, waiting for the thief to turn up. 

 

They were all jumpy, waiting for Parker to come back from planting the bugs that they needed.  Jacob Malthews was a smart business man, planning on using his daughter’s dance performance cover a meeting with an international buyer.  They wouldn’t be involved if the guy hadn’t hired thugs and beaten three of her fellow students a week before the auditions for the show.  There was no proof, no way to show it wasn’t just three random attacks, but they all knew who had been behind it. 

 

“Because I used to watch when I was little.  I couldn’t go to the school so I’d hide in the ventilation ducts and watch from the ceiling.”

 

Eliot jumped at her voice because she hadn’t been in the room and she was still the one person who could routinely sneak up on him.  He hated it, but he admired her for it all the same. 

 

“Jesus Parker, quit that.”

 

She smiled at him, then shifted to look down at the school.  “I don’t think it’s happening today.”

 

“I agree.”  Nate said as he looked down at the building.  “But I think something is, so we’re going to wait and see.”

 

Eliot agreed with both assessments though he kept that to himself.  They didn’t think he was trying to move the merchandise until the recital, but everything they’d seen today spoke of something else.  Eliot didn’t like it at all.  He liked it even less than they’d needed Parker to do it and Hardison wanted to be close enough to see they were working.  Eliot was along just in case there was trouble and Nate had wanted to be there to oversee it since the Malthews home was in such chaos.  And Sophie had just refused to be left alone at headquarters.  All of them there for no real reason.    

 

“What are you thinking Nate?”  Sophie asked, taking a step closer so that her shoulder brushed his.

 

Eliot refused to glare at her, but he was holding back a growl none the less.  She’d made it a point lately to stake her claim and Eliot wasn’t going to play that game with her.  Nate would make his choice and Eliot was hoping it was her at that point.  Nate didn’t need that level of betrayal from Eliot and Eliot didn’t whore himself out for the job.  IYS didn’t get that from him.  Whatever choice he made on that level it was his own and he was afraid Nate was far enough under his skin that he wouldn’t turn him away if that was what he asked for.

 

He told himself he’d pull the trigger for his own safety, to keep his reputation in tact, but he knew he’d regret it after, knew it without a doubt. 

 

“What are they up too?”  Nate asked himself aloud. 

 

Eliot sighed as he looked down at the ballet school again.  “There were too many men at the house today.  He was planning something but I’m not sure it’s this deal.”  Nate nodded, looking expectantly at him, as if wanting him to put the pieces together.  “He pulled his daughter from class early for a reason and he’s got her out of the house tonight.  He’s expecting something to happen.”

 

Nate nodded.  “The question is what.”

 

“You think we should head over to the house?”  Hardison asked.

 

“Eliot?”

 

Eliot shook his head, ignoring the surprised look Sophie shot Nate as he asked for Eliot’s advice.  “Feels too forced.  If something was going on there, he wouldn’t show his hand like this.  It’d be more subtle.”

 

“Glad you think so.”

 

They all knew the voice and Eliot turned to see Jacob Malthews along with two of his goons, both carrying hand guns.  When he looked over his shoulder another guy was coming up the back.  Eliot grit his teeth but Nate was stepping forward.

 

“Woh, what’s this?”

 

“This is business Mr. Detroit.”  Malthews said with a frown.  “I have a deal to make and you and your friends are trying to get in the middle of it for some reason.”

 

“Alicia Martin will never walk again.  Annie Saunders and Natalie Dornan will both be limping the rest of their lives.”  Nate said, his voice calm and certain.  “You can’t expect to do business like that and think no one will notice.”

 

“I can do whatever I like.”

 

The two guns moved side by side and Eliot watched them, waiting.  They were closest to him as if they already knew he was the danger in the group.  If they’d known they were being played they probably did.  He looked back at Hardison and was glad to see the hacker had placed himself between Sophie and Parker and the third henchman.  He nodded and made a small gesture to the back of building where their exit was.  Hardison’s eyes widened slightly but that was the only sign Eliot had that the hacker understood. 

 

“Look Malthews, do you really think we came here alone, without taking some kind of insurance against this sort of thing?”  Nate asked.

 

“I don’t think you expected to be here tonight at all.”  Malthews said. 

 

Eliot crept closer to the other men while they were watching Nate.  They didn’t see him as much of a threat since he didn’t have a gun.  They didn’t negate him completely, but it was a stupid mistake that most people made in their line of business.  Truth be told, Eliot had a certain disdain for people that had to rely on guns.  Under his other alias, he was well known for his abilities, but he was more in tune with his Eliot side when it came to guns.  He hated using them, hated the way people thought they were the end all be all of intimidation.  A man who had to rely on a gun wasn’t much of a man if you asked him.

 

He looked back and nodded at Hardison and the hacker didn’t question it, just turned and slammed himself into the other thug.  The guns turned to see what Hardison was doing, neither expecting the hacker to make that sort of move when Eliot threw himself into the closest, knocking the gun from his hand and then sending the other guy flying across the floor.     

 

“Eliot!” 

 

He heard Hardison yelling but he didn’t look back.  “Get them out of here!”  He heard the scuffle but he knew Hardison was taking them away, getting them to safety the way they’d talked about if things went wrong.

 

He blocked a hit from the guy that was still upright and pivoted as he kicked hard, connecting with the soft tissue surrounding his knee.  There was a loud snap and the guy was down.  Eliot was running to the other, kicking the gun from his hand.  The guy was smarter than the other, protecting himself when Eliot kicked again.  He kicked back, sending Eliot backwards to keep from getting hit and it gave the guy enough room to get to his feet.

 

Eliot could see he knew more about the fight from the way he held himself.  Probably self trained the way he moved from one stance to the next, never settling completely to any of them. 

 

He heard Nate behind him to the right and what must have been Malthews grunt.  “Eliot, time to go!”  He heard the car doors then and knew that they had more company. 

 

He circled his opponent and it was over quickly then.  The guy wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t as good as Eliot by any means.  Eliot had him down on the floor a few minutes after it had all started.

 

“Nate?”  He asked, spinning around to see Nate with a bloody lip. 

 

“Hardison got the others out, but I don’t think we can get out that way.  You got a back up?”

 

Eliot smiled.  “Of course I do.”

 

It wasn’t the best exit, racing down the stairs and hoping no one else was waiting at the bottom, but it was the best he had been able to come up with on short notice.  Still, it was better than nothing. 

 

They got to the parking lot next door and Eliot found the easiest thing he could as Nate waited look out.  He broke into the car, starting it up before grabbing Nate and heading out. 

 

“Where to?”  He couldn’t take them back to the office tonight.  Not with a stolen car and the worry that they might have been followed.  He wouldn’t be going back to set foot in the office until he was able to see for himself that their covers hadn’t been blown. 

 

“You got a safe place?”  Nate asked.  His voice was calm enough but they both knew he was asking for a lot.  He wasn’t asking for just protection, but to be let into Eliot’s private world, a place where he knew he was always safe.

 

He could take them back to some motel, find a place to hide out in for a while but that wasn’t what he needed right then.  Adrenaline was keeping him high and the last thing he wanted was to have to live on that for a while.  At his place he knew he’d be safe.  He’d be able to rest there, to know that nothing was following them there.

 

“Yeah.”  He finally said, his voice coming out a little rougher than he’d planned.  “Take us a little time to get there, but it’ll be safe.  Call Hardison now and let him know we’ll contact him when it’s safe.  If they’re tracking the phones we’ll be too close for it to mean anything.  By the time we get settled he should have the phones clear.” 

 

Nate didn’t question him taking over, just grabbed his phone and made the call.  Twenty minutes later Nate broke the silence. 

 

“Hardison has a place he’s taking the girls.”

 

“Yeah, I knew he had a place.”

 

“He knows you have a place?”

 

“Yeah, but not where.”

 

Nate nodded.  “You planned for something like this to happen tonight?”

 

“I always plan for something like this to happen.  We’re just lucky it took this long for you to find that out.”  He said with a small grin.  It was what it was.  In their business the greatest players weren’t always the best, but the ones that were the most adaptable when something went wrong. 

 

Nate knew that.  They all did.  Eliot was the best at what he did for a reason. 

 

“So how long until we get to this place of yours?”

 

“Thirty, maybe forty minutes.” 

 

Nate nodded, closing his eyes as he leaned the seat back.  “Wake me when we get there.”

 

Eliot looked at Nate for a second, then smiled as he shook his head.  Nate was trusting him to get them to safety.  Not just that, but he was giving Eliot the chance to keep the location to himself.  If it was one of the others he might have just thought they were tired, but Nate was another breed altogether.  He knew exactly what he was doing. 

 

The car was quiet without Nate moving around and Eliot could hear when Nate’s breathing settled into the deeper patterns of sleep.  He felt himself relax at that, having some time to go through the job so far and see where it went wrong.

 

He wasn’t so sure it had, at least not on their end.  He’d had jobs go wrong before when a single, unstoppable coincidence had struck.  It could always be the case.  He couldn’t make himself believe it though.  Not with the timing, the phone call from the night before, a clear imitation of the way he’d made contact with Dean just days before he’d set him up for his fall.

 

He still felt guilty about that, about Dean’s decision to leave the game, but it wasn’t his call to make.  They guy was good, but if he was ready to leave, he was done.  Better to get out while he had the money and all his limbs.  Still, it wasn’t something Eliot could see himself doing.  Not yet anyway.  It wasn’t his time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ride was slow going when they made it into some of the smaller areas, local construction backing him up, but Nate slept through it.  It wasn’t until Eliot turned off the car that Nate stumbled awake. 

 

“Eliot?”

 

“Yeah Nate.  Come on, let’s get settled in and see what we can find out.”

 

Nate got out and Eliot waited for him as he took in the quaint neighborhood and the small house they stood in front of.  The place was quiet; one of the reasons Eliot liked it so much.  There was a small front yard, kept nice and clean by a gardening service and the rest of it was closed in with a high enough privacy fence that no one was getting into it.  His neighbors thought he was an old fashioned cowboy, the kind that rode the bulls in the rodeo and travelled constantly, only showing up when he was too knocked around to get up on the bull for a while. 

 

He found the key, buried in a plastic bag under the hedge at the front edge of the small patio, a place no one would know to look for it.  He dusted off the dirt then unlocked the front door, letting Nate in first.

 

The place was cleaned once a month and Eliot was glad to see his money wasn’t going to waste.  The place looked good and he knew there would be enough canned goods to get him through a couple days if need be. 

 

“Looks like the cleaning lady just came through.”

 

“This is your safe house?”

 

Eliot sighed, not sure he wanted to do this or not, but he was already in over his head when it came to Nate.  “No, this is my house.  No one knows about it so we’ll be safe here.”

 

Nate looked at him, not hiding his surprise and Eliot didn’t let himself see what else was there.  “Living room.”  He said, pointing to the room they were standing in.  He moved through it, walking into the dining room.  “Dining room.  Kitchen’s just through that door.”  He walked down the adjoining hallway, flipping on the light.  “Bathroom in here.”  He opened another door and turned the light on.  “You can sleep in here.  There are some clothes in the drawers you can borrow.”

 

“And you’ll be?”

 

“Bedroom just across the hall.”  Eliot said, ignoring the question of why Nate might have asked that one.  “Why don’t you get something comfortable on and I’ll see if I can manage something to eat.”

 

Nate nodded and Eliot just turned away, trying not to imagine what Nate might look like, pressed back into the mattress of his guest bed.

 

 

 

Nate turned up ten minutes later in the kitchen where Eliot was fixing iced tea as he waited for the spaghetti to boil.  He didn’t have the energy to do anything fancy, but at least it would be warm and tasty.  He kept extra sauce in the freezer and that was already beginning to warm on the stove. 

 

“Wow, you have gardeners, maids, and a cook.”  Nate said with a small smile. 

 

Eliot smiled with him, offering the man a beer.  “Not much else in the house, but I do demand a few things be kept stocked.”

 

Nate took the drink and settled into a chair at the bar at one end of the kitchen.  “You get here often?”

 

“Nah.” Eliot said as he stirred the sauce.  “This is my place away.  I don’t come here unless I have to, too tired or beat up to stay in the game.”

 

“Why do you have it then?”

 

“Because I need it.  Sometimes, just knowing I have this place set up is enough to keep me going.  Sometimes, it’s not and I need to come back here and rest until I can stand on my feet again.”

 

Nate nodded.  “You’re pretty good about making sure you have a clean exit.”

 

“All it takes is not having it once.  Let someone get under your skin, trust someone a little too much, and you count yourself lucky when you wake up in the hospital with just a bullet wound.”

 

“Ouch.”

 

Eliot gave Nate a small smile.  “Yeah, ouch.”

 

“You need a hand with that?”

 

“Nah, I got it.  You can grab some plates and set them out if you’d like?”

 

Nate got up and took the plates and silverware out into the other room.  He disappeared and Eliot was glad for the reprieve.  It was unnerving to have someone else in his home.  He knew he should probably be worried about whatever it was that Nate was looking at, but there were only bits and pieces of Eliot in the house, not enough for Nate to learn anything about who he really was.  In reality, it was harder to be in the space with Nate, just to have him someplace he’d never let anyone else in, which was true in a lot of ways.

 

When he made his way into the dining room with a platter of spaghetti he was a little surprised to see the way it was set up.  He didn’t have a big table, but instead of plates at both ends, Nate had set them up side by side, with Eliot at the head of the table and Nate to his right. 

 

“Nate?”

 

He heard the other man’s answer from the living room and set the platter down, going to see what had Nate’s attention.  He walked into the room and found Nate looking at the fireplace.  He had some books on top of the mantle as well as a photo of himself.  Younger, but still a hitter, it was before he’d learned to be so solitary.  He was in the back yard of someone else’s house with people he no longer knew, holding a beer in one hand with a guitar across his lap, laughing.

 

 

[ ](http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/hunters_retreat/media/Art%20Made%20for%20hunters_retreat/The%20Ford%20Job%20by%20hunters_retreat/photo.jpg.html)

 

“You look happy there.”  Nate said.

 

Eliot nodded.  “We all had a life before this.”

 

Nate didn’t look at him, just seemed to take in the response.  “Didn’t know you played an instrument.”

 

“Just the guitar.  Picked it up when I couldn’t sleep at night.  A quiet way to work out my nervous energy.”  He hadn’t meant to say anything about it, but it was too late.  “Come on, dinner’s ready.”  When he walked into the other room, Nate was on his heels.

 

Dinner was quiet but companionable.  Eliot was tired from the drive and the adrenaline rush had fled as soon as he’d made it to the front door.  Nate seemed to be in his own head and Eliot didn’t try to disturb that.  After he got used to having Nate there, it was nice to have the quiet time.  When he was finished eating he took care of the dishes, dismissing Nate into the living room. 

 

He came back when he was done and found Nate reading on the couch.  “I couldn’t find your television.”

 

“I don’t have one.”

“Huh,” Nate said with a tilt of the head.  “I thought you just said that to rile up Hardison.”

 

“I did say it to rile up Hardison, but it’s still true.”

 

Nate laughed as he turned his attention back to the book.  Eliot followed his lead and settled on something light and fun.  He didn’t need anything heavy just then.

 

He was a hundred pages in when he heard Nate sigh, closing his book.  “You think it was coincidence?”

 

He knew what Nate was asking without clarification.  “No.”  He said, putting down the Hitchhiker’s Guide.  “I don’t really believe in coincidences too much anymore.  They still happen, I know, but I don’t trust it.”  It was more than he should have said really, because he was pretty sure the whistle blower had been IYS but he didn’t have proof of that and Nate would have no reason to look in that direction for this. 

 

“Tip off?”

 

“Or they could be watching the girls?  We haven’t noted any surveillance, but maybe something slipped past us.  Hell, they could have a neighbor on the payroll.”

 

“Yeah,” Nate said, running his hand over his face.  “You think we can still pull this off?”

 

“Depends.  If Hardison still has his taps in the house, if they haven’t caught on to our surveillance there, we might still have a chance.” 

 

“We can’t go back to that girl empty handed.”

 

“We won’t Nate.”  Eliot said, unable to face the idea himself.  “We’ll find a way, even if I have to walk in there and bust the place up myself, we’ll get what she needs.”

 

Nate looked at him, surprise in his eyes and it wasn’t until then that he realized he’d crossed the room to stand in front of Nate. 

 

“Thanks Eliot.”  Nate said, his voice soft in the wake of Eliot’s pronouncement.  “And thank you for earlier.  You got us out of there, all of us.  Thank you.”

 

Eliot nodded dumbly because all he could think to do suddenly was kissing Nate to make him understand that he wasn’t about to leave the team high and dry, no matter what his real reason for being there was.  He couldn’t though, couldn’t get that much more entangled because this was already too much. 

 

Instead, he walked out, not stopping until he was at the door of the living room.  He braced himself against the wall and looked back, taking in the sight of Nate in his home, committing it to memory because it would be the only time he got that, before he shook his head.  “Get some sleep Nate.  We’ll get in touch with Hardison in the morning and see where we can go from here.”

 

He was halfway down the hallway when he heard Nate’s “Good night” from the other room.  He didn’t stop and go back but plowed ahead, scowling as he opened the door to his own room. He didn’t even bother turning the light on as he headed straight to the bathroom.

 

He stripped out of his clothes and took a hot shower, letting it erase the aches of the earlier fight and the long drive out.  He could feel the exhaustion taking over and it wasn’t the time or place to fight it so he let the lethargy take over, making him clumsy and slow.  He needed the night to recharge, needed the privacy of his own bed to remind him that his was a solitary life.

 

The day’s filth was down the drain and he stepped out, feeling lighter somehow for it.  He wrapped a towel around his waist and grabbed another to dry his hair.  He took his time, brushing out the knots and tangles, letting the repetitive motion sooth him even more. 

 

He was ready for bed when he finally left the bathroom.  He was only a step into the darkened room before he realized Nate was there, staring up at the ceiling as he lay across Eliot’s bed.

 

“Nate?”

 

He could see Nate’s eyes as he adjusted to the dim light and they were locked on him.  “Eliot.”

 

There was uncertainty in his voice and it made something in Eliot ache.  He wanted to reassure Nate that they’d fix this job and get the girl what she needed, but part of him knew it had nothing to do with that. 

 

“What are you doing here Nate?”

 

“You mean, what are we doing here?”

 

Eliot closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to keep from doing anything stupid, like what he really wanted.  “I’m tired Nate, I don’t have the energy for games.”

 

“I’m not here for a game Eliot.  I’m just here for you.”

 

Eliot was moving before he was aware of his own intentions and he had Nate pressed flat onto the bed, one hand braced to the side and the other on his arm, giving him no where to go.  “And isn’t that a game Nate?  You going back and forth between me and Sophie all this time?  Giving in a little and taking back?  I’m not into that Nate.  I can’t-”

 

The press of Nate’s lips cut him off and he was biting down on his bottom lip without hesitation.  As much as he was trying to deny himself this one thing, he’d known damn it, known all along that if Nate wanted this he’d cave to it. 

 

Nate moaned into his mouth and Eliot’s hand slid up under the hem of his shirt, letting his fingers drift over warm skin.  He pulled back then, forced himself up off the bed as Nate sat up, following him.  “Last chance Nate.  You can walk out of here now and I won’t hold it against you.  Do this though, and it all changes.”

 

Run.  He wanted to tell Nate to run because he didn’t deserve this, but he wasn’t strong enough to be that man.  He wasn’t the hitter Nate thought he was.  He was an assassin and he was playing the role he needed.  Only it was more than a role tonight and this was going too far, but in the end he’d do what he wanted and pay for it later. 

 

“All I could think about as we drove up here was what if they’d gotten you?  What if you hadn’t been quite as fast as the gunmen?  I can’t… Eliot…”

 

There was so much need in the way he said his name that Eliot found himself moving again, this time to comfort the other man. Nate wrapped his arms around Eliot’s waist as he stood at the edge of the bed and Eliot let his fingers run through Nate’s hair.  “Nothings gonna happen to me Nate, and I won’t let anyone else harm you either, not while I’m around.”

 

When Nate let him go it was to pull his shirt over his head.  He didn’t look away, didn’t look shy or ashamed of what he was doing and it was all Eliot could do not to help him out of his clothes.  Instead he just stood there watching until Nate was naked and spread out on his bed.

 

Nate pulled at Eliot’s towel then and it dropped to the floor in a wet pile at his feet.  When Nate’s fingers glanced over his abdomen he could feel his body starting to shake already.  “Nate,” He said in warning as he stepped closer. 

 

Nate pulled himself higher up on the bed and then Eliot was kneeling between his legs, taking in another sight he knew would never be his again.

 

“Eliot.” 

 

There was an order in that voice and it brought a smile to Eliot’s lips like nothing else could.  When he lowered himself until his lips were a breath a way he looked Nate in he eye, still smiling, “Yeah boss, I gotcha.”

 

It was the last he spoke for the night, but his ears were filled with Nate’s moans and the filthy things he told him to do.  When he fell asleep that night, he was sated and exhausted in ways that only really good sex could make someone.  He wrapped his arms around the other man, pulling Nate’s back to his chest as he nipped at his ear lightly.  He knew he should get up, or ask Nate to sleep in the other room, but after their love making he was too happy and relaxed to do either.  Instead he relaxed into the sound of Nate’s breathing and fell into dreamless sleep.

 

 

 

When he woke the next morning it was to the sound of the shower in the other room.  He groaned at the memory of the night before and had enough presence of mind to be grateful that he’d woken alone and didn’t have to add that memory to the list of everything else he knew about Nate.  Somehow, knowing what he looked like first thing in the morning seemed more intimate than what he’d learned last night. 

 

He dragged himself out of bed and threw on some sweats, then headed to the kitchen to make coffee.  He was half way through a cup when his phone rang. 

 

“Hello?”

 

“So they didn’t get you after all.”

 

“Good to hear from you Hardison.  I take it we’re safe?”

 

“Yeah man, no one is tracing these phones or listening in.”

 

“Good.  The girls alright?”

 

“Unless you count the amount of bitching they did about the lack of hand cream in my bathroom, they’re fine.”

 

Eliot heard noise and looked up the hallway to see Nate walking in, fresh from the shower in a pair of borrowed sweats.  “Hold on man.”

 

He turned the phone on speaker and sat it on the dining room table.  “Go on Hardison.  Nate just walked in.”

 

“Hey Nate.  I managed to get hooked back into the system and it looks like the whole thing was a tip off.  They didn’t know who they hell we were or what we were after.  They just knew we were watching yesterday.”

 

“So they haven’t changed their plans any?”

 

“No, I mean yeah, they’re adding some more security people, but nothing that affects our plans.”

 

“Alright.  Let’s make it happen then.  Is the office safe Hardison?”

 

“Yeah, we’re already there.”

 

“Okay.  Eliot and I will meet you there this afternoon.”

 

“Alright.”

“Hey Hardison?” Eliot called out before the other man could hang up.

 

“Yeah?”  

 

“Good job out there yesterday.”

 

There as a pause and he could imagine the smile on the other man’s face.  “Thanks man.”

 

He hung up then and tossed the phone to the side.  “Coffee’s in the kitchen.”  He said, as he walked past Nate to get back to his room.  He needed a shower before he faced the man, needed to have that and at least one layer of clothes to have any conversation.

 

 

The ride back was quiet and it was mostly because every time Nate tried to talk to him Eliot glowered.  Nate smiling slightly each time, like he knew Eliot was freaking out about their night.  He’d managed to avoid talking about it so far, mostly because Nate seemed happy enough to see him off kilter.  The bitch of it all was that Eliot didn’t want to pass if off as nothing.  He thought maybe Nate was the type of person that could understand where he’d come from and how he’d managed to be the person he was, that he could understand the need to make himself into different people to protect himself.  He couldn’t have that though.  He couldn’t have happily ever after, couldn’t even afford happy right now, so it left him with nothing but a string of one nights and a need to distance himself from the one man he had genuine feelings for.

 

When they got to the office Nate left Eliot alone.  He closed the door to his office and Sophie went barging in after a few minutes as if she owned the place.  Hardison came in to go over details of the night’s job and the rest of the afternoon was eaten up with it.

 

A few hours later and they were done with the job completely.  Sophie had managed to grab the guys PDA while they were at the recital and Hardison had a copy of everything on it in seconds.  Hardison had then hacked into the guys security at the house and disabled what he could.  Parker snuck in and got the merchandise, a really impressive collection of stolen gems that could finance a small war.  All Eliot and Nate had to do at that point was keep the buyers convinced they were the men they were there to negotiate with. 

 

They couldn’t break the guy, but Nate did his best to destroy his reputation and that was normally enough in their business. 

 

It wasn’t until later that night, after they’ll all gone home, that Eliot had any time to himself.  He stalked into his apartment and looked around for anything that might give off who he really was.  There was nothing there that would tell anyone who lived there, not even a photo.  It was the way it was supposed to be.  Unlike his life that had somehow gotten turned upside down.

 

He took a deep breath as he looked out at the view of the night sky.  There were only two options and he wasn’t sure he could live with either.  He’d be broken no matter what, but he wasn’t sure which he’d survive. 

 

He let his mind drift back to the night before, the way Nate had kissed him like there was nothing else in the world but the two of them, the way his hands had moved over his skin steady and comforting, the feel of being inside him, of hearing his lover’s moans over and over again.

 

He thought of the bed that awaited him tonight, lonely and cold, thought of where Nate was tonight.

 

It was enough to make him realize he only had the one choice anymore.  He wouldn’t pull the trigger.  He couldn’t.  The only chance he had was to run.  To send the money back and tell them that something had come up and he couldn’t complete the job, then find a way to warn Nate without letting him know who it was from.  He’d be miserable without Nate around, but at least he’d know Nate was still alive.  The option of pulling the trigger was long off the table, even if Eliot hadn’t realized it.

 

He grabbed the first bag he found in the closet, stuffed it full of clothes, packed a gun just in case, and began picking up his toiletries when he stopped suddenly, knowing there was someone else in the room.

 

“You’re running?”  Nate asked quietly from the door of his bedroom.

 

Eliot closed his eyes but he didn’t answer, just dropped the toiletry bag in with the rest of his things.

 

“Of all the things I expected because of last night, you running was the last.”

 

“What do you want Nate?  I told you, last night changed everything.”

 

“Yeah, I know. I just thought you meant it in a better way.”

 

“You thought what you wanted to.  I can’t… Nate, I can’t stay objective when you’re around anymore.  I can’t be the hitter and take care of the team when I’m worried about you all the time.”

 

“You did it yesterday.”

 

“That was before.”

 

“No, it wasn’t Eliot.  This has been there for a while and you know it.  Last night didn’t change that.”

 

Eliot hung his head down slightly.  “Maybe not, but it brought a few things into light.”

 

He felt Nate moving but he didn’t pull away.  Nate stopped just behind him, one hand coming up to rest on his shoulder.  “Don’t go.  I need you here with me.  You make sure I stay in line, you question me when the others wouldn’t dare.  I need you Eliot.”

 

“The team needs me.”

 

“Maybe, but I need you too.”

 

He let himself be turned and then Nate was pressing up against him and he knew he was still lost.  Nate was so far under his skin he’d never get him out.  There was nothing he could do about it now, but face the consequences. 

 

When Nate knocked the bag off the bed and pushed Eliot down onto it, he went without protest and if he was extra attentive to Nate’s needs in bed that night, the other man certainly wasn’t complaining.

 

 

Nate gave them all a two week break after that job and Eliot didn’t see anyone in that time.  Except for Nate of course, because when Eliot tried to avoid him the mastermind just showed up at his doorstep.  He seemed to know when Eliot was doubting his choices and showed up to sooth them away. 

 

He couldn’t figure out how to tell Nate the truth though he knew he needed to.  Eventually he was going to get the call to pull the trigger and he’d have to tell them no, have to confess it all to Nate and it would go over much better if it wasn’t on the run with Nate.   He just couldn’t figure out a way to admit to what he’d been brought aboard to do.  Not just because of what it meant for his relationship with Nate, who he doubted would get the fine line between prostituting himself out on the job and actually wanting to be with him, but also because of the man it made him out to be.  Nate knew Eliot, but not the other sides of him and Eliot wanted to keep it that way.  Eliot Spencer, hard ass he might be when the need was there, had a good heart.  Not all of his aliases did.

 

 

  
[](http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/hunters_retreat/media/Art%20Made%20for%20hunters_retreat/The%20Ford%20Job%20by%20hunters_retreat/Sophie.jpg.html) [](http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/hunters_retreat/media/Art%20Made%20for%20hunters_retreat/The%20Ford%20Job%20by%20hunters_retreat/hardison.jpg.html)

 

 

 

It didn’t happen the way he thought it would.  There was no preamble to it all.  The team had only been back together for two days but they were back working a case again, sitting in front of the monitors at the conference table when he walked in.  Dressed in a cheap suit and wearing shades that made him look like a CSI-wannabe, he smiled when he saw them all together. 

 

“Can we help you?”  Nate asked.

 

Eliot already had a bad feeling and he was rising to his feet when a gun was pointed at him.  The guy didn’t take his eyes off Nate, but his hand was steady.  “Hello Nate.  I’ve come on behalf of an … old acquaintance.  It seems like you’ve been causing some trouble and they’ve grown tired of it.”

 

“I do seem to have that affect on people.”  Nate said, as if the guy didn’t have a gun pointed at his lover’s chest. 

 

Eliot could see the confusion in the set of the guy’s shoulders.  He expected Nate to plead for his lover and he was wondering if his intel was good.  He finished getting to his feet and the gunman brought his attention fully to him.  

 

“And you would be Eliot Spencer.  Or are you going by Davis Kempsted these days?  It’s hard to remember which is the real you.”    

 

Eliot’s eyes hardened but the guy just smiled, knowing exactly what sort of bomb he’d just dropped.  The name Davis Kempsted was one people tread around lightly.  He was known for having a temper and killing people over minor disputes while working.  He was one of the world’s leading assassins.  He was just as good at his job as Eliot Spencer, only there was no heart of gold in the man.  There was no heart at all.  He’d done a good job of keeping it that way, until the day Davis Kempsted had to play Eliot Spencer.

 

“I don’t suppose either one really is though.”  The guy commented. 

 

“I don’t suppose you’re gonna give us your name?”  Eliot’s voice was a growl.  As much as he wanted to leap at the man he wanted a name first in case he missed the opportunity.  He had no problem whatsoever letting Davis Kempstead out of his box for this guy.

 

“Matt Lorence.”  He said and Eliot nearly laughed because it was too arrogant to be believed.  An honest answer and a name that, while good, was still new to the business.

 

“Now, IYS hired your friend there to get close to you, but they hired me to come in and take the shot.  Not before you knew the truth though.”  The guy kept the gun on Eliot but moved closer to Nate.  “He’s the one that set up Dean Clayton, made the call to get him hurt.”

 

Eliot could feel the others looking at him, but it was Nate’s expression that held him tight.  The knowledge that everything the man said was true.

 

“He took the hitter spot to get close to you, so you would know what real betrayal felt like.  Course, Davis was always known for going above and beyond the call of duty.  I don’t think anyone expected him to work his way into your bed.”

 

It was the last straw because after everything else was said and done, no one got away with talking like that to him.  Certainly not some punk ass kid who thought he knew what he was up against. 

 

“If you knew anything about me Matt,” Eliot said with a wicked smile.  “You’d be running by now.”

 

“Devis Kempsted doesn’t put himself at risk for anyone.”  The guy said and Eliot nodded along with him.

 

“You’re right.  Too bad you’re stuck with Eliot Spencer.” 

 

He launched himself at the other man then, felt the bite of the bullet in his shoulder almost before he heard it but he was already close enough to rip the gun from his hands, to make sure a second bullet didn’t come after him.

 

He knocked the assassin to the ground and had his gun pointed at him before the others had time to gasp.  He didn’t hesitate in what he needed to do, but it wasn’t the time or place for it.  He grabbed the gun with his weak hand and pulled the other back, knocking the man unconscious.

 

“I’ll get him out of here.  IYS won’t know where he is.”  He said without looking up from the assassin’s still form. 

 

“You’re going to kill him.”

 

Eliot straightened up and looked over at the others, taking in their reactions before settling on Nate.  They were all in shock, Parker peering at him with startled blue eyes, Hardison obviously moved to protect her when the fight started and now was staring at him in disbelief.  Sophie looked almost pleased by the turn of events as she slowly, subtly took a step closer to Nate.  Nate was closed off though, his expression empty.

 

“Yeah, I’m gonna kill him.  He’s an assassin sent to kill you Nate.  He won’t stop because I bested him once.  Hell, he’ll come on harder to prove himself.  I’m not spending my days looking over my shoulder for an enemy I let live.”

 

“Gonna kill us too?”

 

“No Nate, I’m not going to kill you.”

 

“Then you just let an enemy live.”

 

Eliot swallowed against the lump in his throat before nodding.  “So be it.  I’ll get him out of here and you won’t see me again.”

 

“We’ll take care of him.”  Nate said.

 

Eliot ignored him.  “No, you won’t.  I know you Nate and I know what you’re capable of.  So does IYS.  They didn’t send him to kill you Nate.  They sent him to tell you who I was.  If they wanted you dead first, they’d have killed you already, they’d have told me to pull the trigger. Or they’d have sent someone good enough to kill me in the first place.”

 

“You mean… you were really…”  He could hear the disbelief in Hardison’s voice and it cut a lot deeper than he would have thought possible. 

 

He kept his back to the team, knowing they weren’t the type of people that were capable of the things he was.  He couldn’t face them just then, not with his betrayal fresh and an assassin at his feet that he still had to kill. 

 

“Yes.  I was hired by IYS to get onto the team.  You were costing them millions.”

 

“And they wanted to hurt me.”

 

“Yes.”  He confirmed Nate’s words. 

 

“Get the hell out.”

 

His voice was calm but then Hardison stepped into it.  “Nate, come on man, he’s bleeding.  We gotta patch him up.”

 

“Get the hell out of here!”  Nate yelled across the room.

 

Eliot finally turned again, his eyes meeting Nate’s hardened glare.  “Yeah, I’m gone.  Just remember Nate, they aren’t done with you.  They’ll send someone else and the next one will be good.”

 

He grabbed the assassin who had slowly come around and pulled him to his feet.  He pushed him towards the door and looked back one last time.  “Be careful Nate, all of you.  IYS means business.  You have no idea the kind of money they’re offering for you.”

 

“Good to know your services come at a high price.”

 

It was a cheap shot but Eliot felt the sting of it none the less.  Nate looked slightly mollified at his reaction to it and he could feel the sting of that as well.  It wasn’t the man he’d come to think of as lover, or the boss, or the friend.  Nate was right, he’d just left an enemy alive, and he wasn’t sure he’d survive it.

 

 

 

 

 

He tried to run, tried to cut his losses and just hide away until it was over and done, but he couldn’t do it.  Maybe Davis Kempsted was that man, but Eliot Spencer wasn’t and as much as he liked to keep Eliot buried most of the time, if there was any part of his original personality still left, it was Eliot. 

 

He thought about trying to talk to Nate about what had happened or maybe one of the others but none of it felt right.  Instead, he took a look at IYS to see who it was that had hired him.  He took care of it as quickly as possible because he knew there would be a hit and soon.  They wanted Nate to stew in the betrayal before he died, but they didn’t want to give him enough time to get out of it. 

 

It only took two days to find out the name, not of the man who’d hired him, but of the man behind that.  He needed to neutralize both.  It didn’t do any good to get the front man without the backer.

 

It was easy enough then to see who they brought in next.  His instinct to protect the team made him want to explain what was happening but it still wasn’t time.  He did need a little help though, a way to know what was happening. 

 

When he picked up the phone he was surprised to realize he knew the number by heart. 

 

“Hello?”

 

“Don’t hang up Hardison, it’s Eliot.”

“Eliot?  I don’t think I know any Eliots.  I thought I did this one time, but I was wrong.”

 

He could hear the anger in his former-friend’s voice and he couldn’t blame him for that.  “Look I’d say I’m sorry but that doesn’t mean anything and it doesn’t change anything.  You might not like what you heard, but you know me Hardison.  I’m not trying to jerk your chain here.  I’d call Nate but I know he won’t listen.  There’s another hit coming after Nate.  I know it has to do with the job you’re working on but I don’t know when or where.”

 

There were a few moments of silence and then a deep sigh.  “Nate is going to kick my ass when he finds out about this.”

 

“I’m just trying to keep you guys safe.  It’s my job Hardison, it’s what I do.”

 

“That’s what Eliot Spencer did.  I’ve heard all sorts of things about Davis Kempsted.”

 

“Davis Kempsted is dead.”  Eliot said flatly.  “If I hadn’t been ready to retire him before this, I am now.”

 

“Why?”

 

He didn’t want to explain himself but Hardison deserved it.  He’d spent more time with Hardison than the others and there had been a real friendship developing there, even if it often times felt like sibling rivalry.  “When you look at who you are and start to worry about what people will think of you it’s normally because you’re ashamed of something.  You can ask Nate about this, but I was gonna run man.  I didn’t want to be there when everyone found out who I was.  I couldn’t face that.  Nate got me to stay, but when a man would rather run than let you know who he really is, it’s because he isn’t the man he wants to be.  Davis was never real, he was just a mantle to put on when I needed him.”

 

“And Eliot?”

 

“Eliot was always more of me than I wanted anyone to know.”

 

“And now?”

 

“Eliot’s the man I’m trying to be.”

 

There was another pause on the other line.  “Alright man.  Tell me what you need to know.”

 

 

 

 

 

He could hear the voice before he saw it and he couldn’t help but be proud of what was there.  Hardison was staring down the barrel of the gun, protecting Nate, waiting for the moment Eliot charged into the room.

 

He could have done this easier, could have used a gun from a distance and taken care of it that way, but he wasn’t that man anymore.  He’d meant what he said to Hardison.  If he was going to become Eliot Spencer it had to be one hundred percent, not just when it was convenient. 

 

“That just ain’t right man.”  He heard Hardison saying.

 

“Step out of the way or I’ll just shoot you too.”

 

“You’re gonna shoot him anyway, so why give him the wrong idea?”  Eliot asked as he came out of his hiding place. 

 

The gunman took a step back, trying to figure Eliot into the new equation.  The good thing about both Eliot and Davis was that they had both escaped facial identification.  The man might think he was the missing hitter/assassin, but he wasn’t sure.

 

“It seems cruel to let them know they’re all going to die, but I suppose we can play it your way.”

 

Eliot nodded.  “That was the way I was gonna go actually.  Confess it all, take them out one by one.  Nate first,” he said, giving the guy a crooked smile as he tilted his head with the words.  “Because he’s the target after all.  Then Sophie because I can’t stand Paris and we had to stop twice to go shoe shopping.  Then Parker because she’d downright insane and you never know what a crazy person will do.”

 

“And the last one?” The assassin asked.

 

“Hardison?  Oh, I figured he’d probably stay alive.  He’d bribe me with promises of free sports channels and porn for life, or something like that.”

 

The guy looked at the team and it was the moment of unfocused attention that Eliot had been waiting for.  He kicked out, connecting with the gun and sending it skidding across the floor.  Hardison was the closest to Eliot but he knew better than get in the middle of the fight and he was throwing the others behind the table in case something went wrong.

 

The assassin, Charles Burkowitz III, eyed Eliot and it was obvious they were both fighters.  Burkowitz sneered as he circled Eliot.  “You’re a dead man.  Even if you escape here alive, they will hunt you down.  Or, we can kill them together.”

 

Eliot shook his head.  “Afraid not.  I’m rather fond of my team.  Think I’ll stick with them, thanks.”

 

“Your choice.”  Without warning Burkowitz spun around, catching Eliot in the right side. 

 

The fight was brutal, both men knew how to hurt and how to take a hit so it was a matter of waiting to see whose stamina held out. 

 

It wasn’t until Eliot had him in a headlock that he realized it was over.  Instinct made him want to go for the kill, but  Nate was pulling at his arm and Hardison was yelling in the background that the plan was to incapacitate the man, not kill him.

 

When he finally let go he had to push away quickly as the others sat watching him.  Hardison came over quickly though, handcuffs in one hand.  “There.  Should be enough, don’t you think?”

 

Eliot nodded.  “Yeah.  I’ll take him over now and that’ll be done.” 

 

“Wait.”  Nate demanded.  “What are you doing here Eliot?”

 

“You don’t have a new hitter.  I was just making sure you had your back covered.”

 

“Eliot.”

 

“Look, I told you they would send someone else.  I just found out who.  Oh, and by who.  Guy who hired me is named Richmond, but he was put to it by an English man, named Sterling.”

 

“Sterling?”

 

“You know him?”

 

“Yeah,” Nate said, scrubbing his hand through his hair.  “We used to work together.”

 

“Now that sucks.”  Hardison said with a shake of his head.

 

“It’s not the worst I’ve lived through.”  Nate said, his eyes staring at Eliot as he said it.  “So I don’t buy it.  Why are you here Eliot?”

 

He took a deep breath.  “Really, you wanna do this here?”

 

Nate looked over his shoulder at Sophie and Parker, then turned back to Eliot. “Yeah, I am.  You betrayed us all; they have a right to know.”

“Long story short, IYS hired me two months before we met.  They wanted me to get in close to the team so that when it was time for me to pull the trigger you would feel betrayed.  So I got Dean caught, though I was also the one that called the cops that night as well before you get too pissed about that one.  And then I was on the team and you were all so crazy I couldn’t help but like it here.  And then there was you Nate.  And I swear to god I told you to walk away Nate, I told you it would change everything and you didn’t go.”

 

“That’s why you were gonna run.”  Nate said, the surety in his voice was a pleasant surprise after everything else but he knew it was far from alright.

 

“Yeah,” Eliot said with his head down.  “I thought if I ran, warned you somehow that it was coming that you’d get by somehow.  I wouldn’t have gotten far before I realized I was wrong and I would have come back, but the idea was there.”

 

“So now you’re working with Hardison?”

 

Eliot nodded.  “I knew he’d listen for a minute at least.  He helped me get the bugs where I needed them in IYS.  Thankfully, we have enough incriminating evidence to keep Richardson and Sterling from doing anything stupid.”

 

“We have enough to put them away for life.”  Hardison added with a smile. 

 

“That should get you clean of them.”  Eliot walked over to the Burkowitz and pulled a gun from his inner jacket pocket.  He open the plastic bag and used it to place it on the still unconscious man.  Then Eliot took a deep breath and looked at the team.  “And now that I’ve managed to get that done, and y’all are safe, I’ll take off.  This guy,” he said, kicking the assassin’s foot, “will be collected by the police as soon as I call.  That gun is wanted for a few murders.”

 

“Ones he committed?”

 

“No,” Eliot said with a shake of his head.  “but no one knows what Davis Kempstead looks like and it seems fitting that the last thing he does in the business would be to send someone else to jail for the murders he committed.”

 

“So you’re setting up an innocent man?”

 

“I’m making sure justice is served.  Maybe not for the people I killed, but for all the people he killed.  I’m making sure he can’t come after you again Nate.”  No one said anything and Eliot nodded because what had he expected?  Nate wasn’t going to come to his senses because he was already doing the smart thing.  “You know where I am if you need me.  I’m still your hitter, until you tell me otherwise.”

 

Nate watched him the whole time and it wasn’t until Eliot was turning to leave that he felt Nate’s hand on his arm.

 

“Eliot.” 

 

He closed his eyes against that sound, the way Nate said his name should have been illegal.  “Yeah Nate?”

 

“Come back to the office tomorrow.”

 

“The office?”

 

“Yeah, we have a position that just opened up.  You might be the right man for it.”

 

Eliot smiled and couldn’t help the laugh that wanted to escape.  It wasn’t forgiveness, not yet, but it was something.  Considering what they were coming through, trust would have to come one step at a time.  Being in the same space with the others would give him the chance to see them, to gain it back little by little.

 

And maybe, with the way Nate had looked at him when he realized why Eliot had tried to run that night, maybe there was a chance at more with Nate.  He needed to stick it through or he’d never know. 

 

When Eliot walked out, it was with a much lighter step. After all, he just might have a job.  And when it was all said and done, he was willing to do whatever it took to get Nate’s forgiveness. 

 

 

 

[ ](http://s1180.photobucket.com/user/hunters_retreat/media/Art%20Made%20for%20hunters_retreat/The%20Ford%20Job%20by%20hunters_retreat/nate-eliot.jpg.html)

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the au_bigbang on live journal . Thank you to both alocine_89 and mr_mrs_faxsea for their beta work on this! They really helped me kick it into gear :p And absolute adoration for insane_songbird who did so many amazing pieces for this project. I swear there was something new in my mail box every other day :P Please make sure you go by her art post and show her the love she deserves for this! You can find all the amazing art she did here: [ Art Post ](http://insane-songbird.livejournal.com/65480.html)


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